CCBC-Recommended Book Search - Cooperative Children's Book Center

Holey Moley

“See this hole? I dug it. I’m a mole.” The mole appears through a softball-sized die-cut circle through the book’s jacket, cover, and first page. After that, most of the action occurs above and beneath a horizontal line that represents the above and below ground. Keep your eye on the winding red lane; that’s the mole’s tunnel beneath the earth. As she navigates, she tells about the world above and below her, a world filled mostly with curving, wiggly worms, root vegetables, and butterflies. There are a few short lines of rhyming text on every page, but Ehlert’s bold cut-paper assemblages are the real star here. A visual index at the book’s end shows labeled pictures of each of the creatures below and above ground that the mole encountered, and a final double-page spread extending through the final endpapers lays out a map to her underground home. ©2015 Cooperative Children's Book Center

Illustrated by Lois Ehlert

Wisconsin author, Wisconsin illustrator

Lois Ehlert was born and raised in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. She graduated from Layton School of Art in Milwaukee (1957) and from UW-Milwaukee (1959). She lived in Milwaukee until her death in 2021.

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 3-6
Age Range: Babies/Toddlers (birth – 3) PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Format: Picture book
Subjects: Animals (Fiction) Nature/Environment Stories in Rhyme

Publishers: Beach Lane, Simon & Schuster
Publish Year: 2015
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781442493018

CCBC Location: Picture Book, Ehlert

Holey Moley